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Yale Journal of Music &

Volume 5 | Number 1 Article 5

2019 Singing God's Words: The eP rformance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Mili Leitner Cohen University of Chicago

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Recommended Citation Leitner Cohen, Mili (2019) "Singing God's Words: The eP rformance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1155

This Review is brought to you for free and open access by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yale Journal of Music & Religion by an authorized editor of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jeffrey Summit Singing God’s Words: The Performance of Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Singing God’s Words: The Performance of and Mizrahi —those with roots in Biblical Chant in Contemporary Judaism Muslim-majority countries—are also offers the first comprehensive study of omitted because this U.S. Jewish minority the experience of chanting . Jeffrey group read Torah according to a different Summit writes with the expertise of both cantillation system and, whether self- a practitioner—he is an ordained described as orthodox or traditional, rarely and until recently was executive director engage with the progressive denominations of Tufts University’s Hillel—and a scholar that dominate the U.S. Jewish landscape. of Jewish liturgy. His authorial voice deftly In limiting his scope, Summit states directs the reader toward his interlocutors’ that his intent is to portray a particularly experiential retellings, which form the core U.S.-American kind of Judaism wherein of this work. Torah readers privilege self-fulfillment, As Summit notes in the Introduction, spirituality, and religious experience over previous ethnomusicological and music- obligation; that is, individual benefit ological studies have focused on the analysis over community service. While all 650 and theory of the cantillation system used to of Summit’s interlocutors chant the same read Torah, but have not addressed the topic scriptural text using the same cantillation from a reader’s experiential perspective. models, their motivations and experiences Here, though, the central question is what differ from one another. It is these diverse drives lay practitioners to read Torah experiences that Summit shares with the and how they relate personally to this reader in Singing God’s Words. performative ritual. requires The book is divided into 11 chapters specialist skills, including some Hebrew in four parts, the breadth of which far language competency, knowledge and exceeds what can be summarized here. memorization of the teamim (cantillation Part 1, “The Tradition,” addresses the markings) and nekudot (vowels), and the ritual components of the weekly ability to “perform” in a musically oriented Torah reading service. Summit analyzes style in front of an audience that, for some every aspect of this highly choreographed Torah readers, includes God. service and its denominational variations, Summit focuses on liberal U.S. emphasizing its multivocal and inter- Jewish perspectives, with voices drawn personal nature. The material culture of from the gender-egalitarian Conservative, the is described, from the Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal ’s writing process to the purchase movements and, in lesser number, from of a and ritual behaviors such Modern Orthodoxy. Excluded, then, are as the processing and perhaps idolatrous the experiences of Haredi (ultra-orthodox) kissing of the scroll that one encounters Jews, who live in relative isolation from in a service. This section is an the rest of the U.S. population. Sephardi exceptionally comprehensive description

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 74 of the Torah service and serves as an attendees to become accustomed to the excellent introduction to those readers sound of women’s voices in . not personally accustomed to synagogue The discussions of women’s vocal quality rituals. and gender disparity in learning religious Part 2 foregrounds the voices of ritual would have benefited from more Summit’s interlocutors, focusing as it does historical detail or comparison with on the individual’s experience of reading non-Jewish contexts (such as Anne K. Torah. Despite contemporary associations Rasmussen’s 2010 ethnomusicological between intense text study and religious monograph on women reciting the Qur’an fundamentalism, Torah readers are more in Indonesia1). A greater diversity of interested in the experience of reading than voices is given space in this chapter than in the words they chant. They speak of elsewhere in the book. Some women making a contribution to their synagogue cried while reporting their first access to community and gaining a higher social touching a Torah scroll or reading Torah status therein, forging a transgenerational in the synagogue after having been denied connection through and access thereto. By contrast, Orthodox feeling empowered by demonstrating men and women presented apologetics embodied Jewish expertise. and textual evidence in order to continue The final chapter of this section, to deny women’s participation. Summit “Women Reading Torah,” offers a rich represents Gordon Dale’s M.A. research assessment of the changing status of on partnership minyanim here, a relatively women’s voices. Here, Summit draws new phenomenon whereby women are expertly upon Jewish theology, philosophy, given some leadership opportunities in and praxis, weaving a rich web of canonic public prayer at a less-than-egalitarian texts and contemporary individual voices level. In offering a greater diversity of to produce a nuanced and multilayered voices and experiences and a more specific impression of not only the current state of topical focus than any other chapter in the women’s participation, but also the historical book, “Women Reading Torah” hints at the circumstances that produced today’s reality. gravity of this topic while also evincing the Summit touches upon the relative lack of impossibility of doing it justice in a mere learning opportunities for women, which, 18 pages. Given the rest of the book’s focus combined with the fact that women only on contemporary egalitarian communities, began reading Torah publicly in the 1950s, I wonder whether this chapter’s presence is means that many of today’s readers are the altogether justified, since the voices cited original “pioneers” and there is a limited therein are minority experiences when pool of expert women Torah readers. In situated within the book as a whole. much of the Modern Orthodox community, Part 3, “The Performance,” explores the women reading Torah is still taboo and relationship between textual content and young women rarely learn to read in musical delivery, and the ways in which preparation for their bat (whereas performance is evaluated by congregants. young men are expected, even required, The chanter (who, Summit suggests, defies to do so at this lifecycle event). Summit categorization as a reader, performer, or mentions, too, the need for synagogue singer) may be corrected aloud by any

75 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) congregant, and must then repeat the compendium of Jewish law to Steinsaltz’s section in which they erred until they translations of the . He presents chant it correctly. Summit deftly explores the move from low-tech oral environments the liminal nature of Torah chant as to online learning as a continuation of music, noting that it is presentational but this process, but one that has deep-seated not performative, and demands a level of consequences for Jewish communities and musical skill accessible to all—a necessity, individuals. Increased democratization of since the communities under examination access to this skill and the capacity to make expect all congregants to chant Torah during secular spaces sacred are likely benefits, their bat or bar . While individual but must be weighed against the decline interlocutors expressed their preference for of community authority and , Torah readers who demonstrated musical the transmission of associated bodies of competency, a grasp of Hebrew, and the knowledge such as posture and respect capacity to convey phrase structure and for the sefer Torah, and standardization textual meaning through cantillation, a across Ashkenazi cantillation systems. Less common understanding emerges that these convincingly, Summit repeatedly cites are not essential to an adequate reading, the loss of “authenticity” as a troubling and indeed that an excessively performative consequence of technology without reading can detract from the scripture itself. offering a concrete explanation as to what This section offers some useful transcriptions he—or his interlocutors—mean by that that, along with a comprehensive appendix term. Nevertheless, the chapter describes of Jacobson’s transcriptions of the teamim, and situates this new development permit the reader to understand some of the thoughtfully, perhaps offering the most minor musical discrepancies between Torah informative material for those already readers that Summit’s interlocutors describe. accustomed to Jewish ritual practice. Part 4 assesses the impact of technology Summit’s prioritizing of interlocutors’ on the transmission of Torah reading skills. voices and descriptive emphasis are at Until recently, students new to reading once the book’s major contribution and would learn individually in person from an the source of its main limitation. Singing expert reader, coming to understand the God’s Words is theoretically scant, with teamim system such that they would be able references to other academic texts few and to prepare future readings independently. far between. Appropriate and interesting Now, students increasingly use websites comparisons with other texts are often and apps as an addition to or replacement made, but beyond the Introduction they for in-person studies. Some learn their text merit only an isolated sentence or two and by ear from existing recordings, allowing do not always translate into greater insight for an accurate synagogue performance for the reader. Development of comparative without the theoretical underpinning that or theoretical lenses would have benefited permits full understanding or independent the book and rendered it more obviously learning. Summit notes that changes in relevant to a wider readership. As it stands, learning technology have characterized Singing God’s Words is heavily descriptive, Jewish text study for centuries, from the even emotionally compelling, but limited compiling of the Mishna to ’ in its analytic framing, leaving the reader

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) 76 to assess for herself how the experience of NOTES Jewish Torah cantillation might relate to comparable experiences and practices in 1 Anne K. Rasmussen, Women, the Recited other religious contexts. Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia (Berkeley and That said, Summit’s light touch and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010). crisp writing style render this specialized 2 Gordon A. Dale, “A New Song: Feminism, monograph accessible to any scholar of Music, and Voice in Partnership Minyanim” (Master’s thesis, Tufts University, 2012). religion or music, and elucidate attitudes and practices familiar to scholars and performers of Jewish liturgy with unusual clarity. His pioneering experiential approach to Jewish liturgy makes Singing God’s Words an important addition to ethnomusicological literature and one that will inform scholarship that will surely follow in its wake.

Mili Leitner Cohen University of Chicago

77 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019)